Letters from the dorm: Learning about Asian roots
Author and playwright Frank Chin.Spring break was glorious - I was free from all the constraints of lectures, quiz sections, required reading and the like. Microsoft Office remained untouched. I did nothing (at least nothing academic), and it was EVERYTHING I thought it could be.
My friends and I did explore Seattle, but alas, we didn't go to the Space Needle. We hit up EMP (the Explore Music Project, an amazing museum dedicated to the history of popular music, sci fi and pop culture) and the Wing Luke Museum (dedicated to Asian American history).
Visiting the Wing was the only remotely academic thing I did during spring break, and it's worth noting that I did so voluntarily (no bribes of extra credit involved, ha ha). Just last week, I spent my Saturday at the Chinese American Heritage Seattle Conference, and got to hear Frank Chin, one of the pioneers of Asian American theatre, speak - which was awesome (academic fangirling?).
You know the cliche where a college student frolics around the humanities and eventually "discovers their roots" or some other nonsense? Yeah, that's me.
This quarter, I'm taking Asian American Identity, Intro to American Ethnic Groups and Racism & Minority Groups. Needless to say, some of the material overlaps, but I never knew I'd have this much fun learning about US history - something I never really got into, despite my parents' attempts. Sorry Mum, I never got round to reading all those books you got me as a kid, but I'm learning about my roots now! Better late than never. After three quarters of American Ethnic Studies, I'm quite convinced it'll be my minor.
I have no idea what I'm doing (shocker!), and I know I'm going to regret saying this, but - bear with me - #YOLO, you only live once, or rather, you are only a college student once, so I'm going to have fun drifting around disciplines until I find "the one". That's what general education requirements are for, yeah?